White House Objects to Ad Of Schumer With Clinton

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: February 6, 1998

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5—
Charles E. Schumer today withdrew from television an advertisement that depicted him and President Clinton walking together off Air Force One after White House officials complained that it suggested that Mr. Clinton was supporting Mr. Schumer for the Democratic nomination for the Senate.

The Brooklyn Representative withdrew the advertisement from New York stations after at least two complaints from the White House, one that came in a letter about two weeks ago and another that came in a phone call this week, about what the White House described as the unauthorized use of Mr. Clinton's image in a political advertisement.

The White House made the request even though Mr. Schumer had publicly pointed to the advertisement as evidence that Democrats were sticking by Mr. Clinton during a time of difficulty at the White House. In fact, the ads had become a staple on television stations in big cities across the state and were often juxtaposed with saturation news coverage of Mr. Clinton's alleged involvement with a White House intern, Monica S. Lewinsky.

''We appreciate their show of support,'' Craig R. Smith, the White House political director, said this evening. ''But it's still an unauthorized use of the President's image.''

Mr. Smith, reiterating policy that is well known among Democrats across the nation and has been in place since Mr. Clinton took office in 1993, said that the President would not endorse anyone before Democrats voted in the primary to choose a candidate to challenge Alfonse M. D'Amato. ''All three of the candidates have been long-term friends and supporters of the President, and all of them will make a fine United States Senator,'' Mr. Smith said. ''We will be supporting the nominee wholeheartedly.''

A version of Mr. Schumer's advertisement first went on the air in Buffalo last November. Mr. Schumer launched a more extensive advertising campaign, which also ended with the image of the President and the Congressman, last month.

The White House acted against Mr. Schumer after one of Mr. Schumer's rivals, Geraldine A. Ferraro, the former Representative from Queens and 1984 candidate for Vice President, complained that the ad seemed to imply that Mr. Clinton was supporting Mr. Schumer. White House aides said that Mr. Schumer's advisers initially promised to take the advertisement off the air at the end of its natural rotation, which would have been a week ago.

But despite the assurances to the White House, the advertisement was still being shown in New York as late as yesterday morning. Mr. Schumer's advisers asked television stations to replace it with a new advertisement yesterday.

Mr. Schumer's media adviser, Hank Morris, said the film clip was from 1994, when Mr. Clinton and Mr. Schumer came to New York to stump on behalf of crime legislation that Mr. Schumer had sponsored and that Mr. Clinton supported.

''We're proud of that,'' Mr. Morris said of that appearance. ''We didn't know it was policy not to allow clips like that to be used.''

The rebuke from the White House yesterday was striking because it came after Mr. Schumer had emerged as one of Mr. Clinton's biggest defenders in Democratic circles in the wake of the Presidential sex scandal. Mr. Schumer boasted of his decision to continue airing the advertisement as proof of Mr. Clinton's continuing political prowess.

''The proof of the pudding is I didn't take him out of my ads,'' Mr. Schumer said on Friday. ''We thought about it, but the bottom line was the part of the ad he was in was he and I working on the crime bill.''

And in an interview after reports about Ms. Lewinsky first surfaced, Mr. Morris said specifically that he would not take any steps to remove the advertisement early out of concern that it would produce the impression that Mr. Schumer was abandoning the President. Tonight, Mr. Morris reiterated that concern for Mr. Clinton's well-being was a factor in delaying the withdrawal of the ad, despite the objections from the White House.

''There's no way that Chuck would have done anything that would appear to be pulling away from the President when the President is under siege,'' he said. ''Chuck wouldn't have done it. And the White House was aware of that.''

The attempt by Mr. Schumer to attach himself to Mr. Clinton reflects the fact that the President has long been extraordinarily popular in New York. Mr. Schumer's rivals have complained before that he has exaggerated the support he has from Mr. Clinton, and all three Senate candidates have regularly attempted to link themselves to Mr. Clinton.

''As a friend of the Clintons' and as a Presidential appointee, Gerry knew the President would not get involved in the primary, nor would she ask him to,'' said Ms. Ferraro's campaign manager, David Eichbenbaum. He described the ad as ''misleading.''

The third candidate in the race, Mark Green, the New York City Public Advocate, regularly boasts of his longtime association with Mr. Clinton. His aides did not respond to several calls for comment tonight.

Photo: In the advertisement, President Clinton and Charles E. Schumer, a candidate for United States Senate, emerge from Air Force One. (pg. B7)